Dass die Welt nach dem Ende des Kalten Kriegs nicht sicherer geworden ist, hat zuletzt noch der Krieg im Libanon mit bedrückender Eindringlichkeit zu Bewusstsein gebracht. Regionalkonflikte mit globaler Brisanz sind aufgebrochen, in denen sich neue Formen der Kriegsführung durchgesetzt haben. Die Vorgeschichte solcher Veränderungen zeichnen zwei Aufsätze in der aktuellen Ausgabe nach:

Dierk Walter rekonstruiert die Diskussionen, die britische Militärs im Zeitraum zwischen 1945 und 1970 über die Zukunft des Kriegs geführt haben.

Dierk Walter
Der Blick in die Kristallkugel. Großbritannien und der Krieg der Zukunft 1945–1970
(Summary: After 1945, the atomic bomb, the Cold War, and decolonization revolutionized the strategic situation for the United Kingdom and posed entirely new challenges for its armed forces. The traditional conception of a small volunteer army deployed for overseas interventions by the world’s mightiest navy – which at the same time protected the mother country from seaborne invasion – proved increasingly irrelevant as Soviet land and air forces in Central Europe became a direct mortal threat to the security of the British Isles. Yet for decades Britain’s political and military elites refused to accept that the bloc confrontation and the retreat from Empire made the kingdom’s claim to world power status rather shallow – unless the national economy could support a nuclear potential as well as forces for global war, limited war, and »cold war« at the same time, which it could less and less. Thus the search for the appropriate image of the next war became a pressing priority for the defense community – when, where, against whom, with what weapons and employing which tactics would it be fought, and accordingly, how would the Services best prepare for it? British military journals offer interesting insights into the mindset of armed forces constantly battling over the definition of their rôle.)

Alaric Searles zeigt am Beispiel des englischen Militärtheoretikers J.F.C. Fuller, warum die Revolutionierung der Kriegsführung durch Nuklearwaffen westliche Militäreliten gezwungen hat, über die Rückkehr zum begrenzten, konventionell geführten Krieg nachzudenken.

Alaric Searle
Neue Kriegsformen im Kalten Krieg. Major-General J.F.C. »Boney« Fuller und die Militärtheorie in Großbritannien nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg
(Summary: The historiography to date on Major-General J.F.C. Fuller has created the impression that his career as a military theorist gradually petered out in the latter half of the 1930s, and that after the Second World War the former enfant terrible devoted himself to the writing of military history. This article argues that such an interpretation is open to question, showing the extent to which he continued to write and reflect as both military theorist and commentator in the post-1945 period. While his views on the new strategic situation, the Cold War, nuclear weapons, and the redefinition of military concepts appeared in too many diverse places to enjoy the same influence as his interwar theories, their existence and remarkable coherence demand that his achievements as a theorist be re-evaluated in the light of this hitherto ignored body of work.)

Die Literaturbeilage widmet sich den Arbeiten des Psychoanalytikers Alexander Mitscherlich. Jan Philipp Reemtsma unterzieht Mitscherlichs Thesen zur menschlichen Grausamkeit einer kritischen Würdigung, während Micha Brumlik auf die nicht nur sozialpsychologischen, sondern realhistorischen, bei Mitscherlich eher ausgeblendeten Voraussetzungen der vaterlosen Gesellschaft aufmerksam macht.

Weitere Beiträge:

Nikola Tietze
Zinedine Zidane oder das Spiel mit den Zugehörigkeiten
(Summary: As a highly popular and complex public figure, soccer star Zinedine Zidane offers diverse interfaces for constructions of belonging. Closer examination yields six modes of legitimating notions of community that are currently employed by many young people of immigrant descent in Germany and France. These constructions of belonging include implicit critiques of social relations – critiques that vary, depending on the specific mode of believing in commonality [Gemeinsamkeitsglaube]. Contemporary France’s most renowned team player not only illustrates these six figures as they emerge in contests between subnational and transnational projects of community; as a symbolic figure, Zidane also represents a crystallization point for conflicts about the criteria that determine who belongs to the nation and define national identity. How these games with multiple identities now being played out will end remains unpredictable – not only because they are marked by a panoply of tactical moves, but also because individual players constantly pick and choose from the various justification strategies on offer.)

Ulrich Bröckling
Kritik oder die Umkehrung des Genetivs. Eine Bricolage
(Summary: Fourteen quotations from authors that range from Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Kraus to Guy Debord and Michel de Certeau form the starting points for fourteen brief reflections on the salient features, capabilities, and dilemma of critique, critics, and critical theory.)

Wolfgang Kraushaar
Aus der Protest-Chronik